End of the Silver Age
by Octo8
Summary: AU: Asari discovered humanity in 1996. After 180 years in space, humanity has become a respected and well integrated Citadel race. It is thus a bit less ambitious - but also more prosperous, more cosmopolitan and more caring. More paragon. This is the story of a motley group of Alliance agents - human, drell, quarian, asari - discovering a threat looming over the entire galaxy...


**Ah.. hello. Since AUs seem to be somewhat popualr here, I thought to tap into this market, too. You can see this as a sort of test balloon. If it receives positive feedback I will continue it. If not, well, then it will have been a good experiment, heh. In any case, it does not mean that I stop working on Reaping the Storm or the eventual ME 2 fic. This is a secondary project, so even if I continue it, updates will most likely be erratic. **

**Oh, and as a quick note: This AU diverges from the canon timeline in 1996. Only canon characters born before that (most asari, some krogan) will exist here. The story will be entirely by OCs. Also, Eletania is a planet existing in ME canon. It appears in ME 1, and the peculiarities of its microbiology are mentioned. And now, have fun!  
**

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_In 1996, the asari explorer ship 'Outbound Light' discovered Earth. While First Contact shocked humanity for a while, the discovery of the Prothean ruins on Mars in 2024 propel it to band together and go out into the galaxy. After winning a war against the batarians, who had raided humanity's first colonies, in 2058-2062, humanity is granted an embassy on the Citadel and a golden age begins. Humanity goes out into the galaxy, expands and establishes itself on the galactic stage. This age is cut short by a rapid succession of wars 2106-2118. Eventually, humanity rebuilds, and since then has become a respectable, sufficiently well integrated Citadel race. _

_However, something is different about this humanity. Its First Contact with the wider galaxy was not war, and at the time when it happened it did not yet have a colonial empire of its own already. So this humanity did not have prove anything to anybody, and it was in no position to entertain great power fantasies. There never was a reason for it to become overly ambitious. The other Citadel races were still amazed at what speed humanity expanded and established itself, but there were never talks of a human Council seat or anything like that. As it is, humanity is 'just' a very well respected Citadel race - but at the same time, its society is cosmopolitan and open to everybody, its colonies well developed and urbanized, its economy strong and well connected to the entire galaxy and its government caring for the people. Well, or at least compared to some other governments.  
_

_All in all, it is a more_ Paragon_ humanity. __And humanity is not alone in this universe's System Alliance, either. _

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Eletania was a bustling centre of trade with the multi-species Deep Traverse. The new quarian homeworld fell just short of fifty million people, and as such was somewhat less developed than most colonies in the Local or Exodus Cluster. Despite its economical success, it could not measure up to the glittering arcologies of Eden Prime, or the ever growing urban sprawls of Bekenstein. However, so far out in this corner of the galaxy, it was the largest colony for thousands of light years, and hence its spaceports were always busy. Asari, turians, salarians, hanar and elcor all used it as a first stop on the route between their colonies in the Deep Traverse and the Citadel core space.

Maelys Aetham liked it here. Whenever she had a job in the Deep Traverse she would come here as a matter of business, but it also always was a pleasure for her. She liked the diversity of the space ports, the unique quarian architecture and a widespread mindset that united Alliance patriotism with cosmopolitanism. As an asari citizen of the Alliance she of course would enjoy a planet mostly settled by other non-human Alliance citizens. Most of all, though, she liked it because just about every other colony in the vicinity and every colony in the Deep Traverse were small, boring, rural settlements of under-educated hillbillies. Not that she would say so openly. However, she had always been a city girl at heart.

And she liked Port Royal especially, the planet's third largest space port and the centre of Eletania's non-quarian population. The aptly named place was a lively location, dangerous in some parts but bohemian and creative in others, inhabited by such a variety of species as one could otherwise only find on the Citadel or Omega. Plus, the 'Plush Prothean' was located here, her favourite restaurant and café in the entire galaxy, offering human-asari-salarian fusion cuisine. Usually light cuisine, like pieces of meat from Earth animals with salarian spices and asari salad. Nearly as important as its excellent food was the fact that the Plush Prothean was so well known in and had such good business with the Alliance intelligence community that it was practically part of it. Not that any outsider or casual client would ever sense it. But for people like Maelys, that made it a very safe location. Most of her jobs in the Deep Traverse were a dangerous business, after all. As could be expected from a commando in the employ of the Alliance Information Service (AIS), the Alliance's civilian intelligence. It was her daily job to get into danger for the Alliance or the protection of its citizens.

The AIS was actually not supposed to have commandos. That was the job of the military intelligence services, especially the Special Operations Division, while the AIS was subordinate to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Theoretically, the AIS was only supposed to do fact finding and analysis of diplomatically relevant data. De facto, though, its many contacts in the entire galaxy were far too valuable to have it be restricted like that. And thus, the AIS had ended up with an unofficial and secret strike force, which it recruited from all paths of live. In the end, nobody complained anyway when the AIS yet again helped to strike at pirates or slavers. Which perfectly described what Maelys' most recent job had been.

"I'm still not sure I'm safe," the woman sitting next to her muttered. Her, Maelys and Maelys' team were sitting inside the Plush Prothean, celebrating their newest success.

"You're safe here," Maelys answered.

"You know full well that isn't what I meant," the woman insisted. Isabel Hernandez was the owner and captain of the _Memory __of __the __Golden __Age_. Officially, the _Memory_ was a private merchant ship, but in reality the only way free traders could compete at all with the large transport corporations was to do some less than legal jobs now and then. This in turn required very fast, very over-engineered and maybe even armed vehicles. And this had made the _Memory_ perfect to use as pirate bait. That, and the ship's past. "I meant from the hanar. In general."

"Hard to say," Maelys answered truthfully, "if they're willing to chase you even on the other side of Alliance space..."

"Fucking jelly fish," Hernandez cursed. The pirates had been a motley collection of hanar and batarians, but then batarian pirating scum could be hired at every star port in the nearby Terminus Systems. The initiator of that attack had been hanar, there had been no doubt about that. "You help some drell escape hanar space now and then..."

"Now and then, right" Maelys laughed, "What you did at the hanar border is recommendable."

Hernandez shrugged. What was probably indented as dismissive gesture ended up looking like a gesture of uncertainty on her. "But it's also been possible for only so long. I've long since severed all contacts with the Underground Railroad. Yet they're still hunting me."

"This just shouldn't be possible!" Sehenna Nusari exclaimed. The woman was the dedicated biotic of the group as Maelys had not trained her own biotic skills very well. And she was in fact a drell, and as such she had very clear opinions on that matter. In fact, not only was she a drell, but a compact-born drell. And the hanar had done _something_ to her. She never told what exactly, but she hated that race and even more so all hanar loyalists among her own species with a fiery passion. It was just about the only thing where she ever really showed emotion. And she really liked to argue the issue. "The hanar use their planets in the Settlement Zone for such shit. We should retaliate!"

"Officially it's not them, but 'extremist' groups," a deep, smoky voice answered. "That's how the game is played." And Sandro Vitalone would know. As he constantly reminded everybody, he had seen everything. Something Maelys could only scoff at. After all, she was nearly three times older. But then, on the other hand, she had no past as a mercenary or emergency medic.

"The whole Deep Traverse thing was a mistake," Sehenna argued. "That's what allowed the hanar to do their stuff. The Alliance should have claimed the entire Attican Traverse for themselves."

Maelys laughed. "The entire Traverse? Look at the problems with pirates we already have! How could the Alliance Navy ever protect such large a territory? That's an impossible pipe dream, the Alliance could never have claimed the entire Traverse. As it is, the human colonies in the Deep Traverse enjoy the protection of Citadel fleets, and all the trade between there and the Citadel core space has to go through Alliance territory, which is profitable for us. I think it's a clever arrangement."

"It could have been possible," Sandro said. He sounded disinterested in it all. "I've seen how colonists in the Terminus live. If the Alliance colonists had possessed the courage to do the same they could have claimed the entire Traverse."

Maelys scoffed. "Yeah, improving the Alliance by making Alliance colonists' lives miserable. I don't exactly think there's much logic to that."

Sandro shrugged. He had just pointed out a possibility; he did not care either way.

"I didn't know you military types would discuss politics so, well, openly," Hernandez remarked.

"Trust me, those two do," Sandro answered.

"We're not military," Maelys pointed out. "No uniform, few unit cohesion, not much in the way of discipline and code of conduct, either." She smiled. "Life is good."

An asari waitress approached the table. Maelys' smile widened. She knew the fellow Maiden. Ilaire always had a smile for everybody and an incredible sense of humour. And she could be quite agile, too, as Maelys knew from some private meetings now and then. This time, though, the waitress looked more serious. When she reached the table she said: "I hope you're well?" And in a more subdued voice: "The boss wants to see you. All three of you. Now."

That was the drawback to visiting a restaurant so well integrated into the intelligence community. The job would always find one. Maelys sighed and rose. "You heard her, people. Get up. Seems like we haven't done enough yet for our generous pay."

Before they went off, Sehenna stopped, looked back and said to Hernandez: "If the tentacled bastards bother you again, give us a call. We're here to help."

The three began to walk through the streets of Port Royal. The secret office they would have to report to was only two corners away. In fact that was why the Plush Prothean had first become so popular with AIS' agents. Still, even on this short trip Maelys felt uncomfortable without her weapons. Oh, sure, she could raise a biotic barrier or charge away, but her offensive biotic abilities were catastrophic. There was not a single potential situation that could faze Sandro anymore, and Sehenna was always confident in her own biotic abilities, which truly were outstanding. However, Maelys felt worse than naked.

In fact, given the neighbourhood, she would probably not even have stood out all that much naked. Maybe a bit. But the outer neighbourhoods of Port Royal were known to be liberal, open and also more than just a bit amorous. No part of the city was truly rich, despite its space ports' importance. Those who made the big profit had more exclusive enclaves elsewhere. Still, the region the team was walking through was a far cry from the rough and tumble, crime infested parts right around that space port. The outer neighbourhoods were a haven for alternate lifestyles, bohemiens and all sorts of people who were just a bit different. Despite her uncomfortable feelings, Maelys loved it here.

None of the houses here were older than thirty years, yet they still all looked somewhat shabby, maybe even a bit decrepit. However, they showed a bewildering mix of architecture styles, and their inhabitants often adorned them with flowers, pieces of cloth and colours. A big part of the people's daily life here seemed to be on the street anyway. Maelys saw a human holographic artist do a show at a street corner. Shapes of light in a dazzling array of colours danced in front of him. In his audience, a drell woman and a quarian woman were kissing passionately, the holo-arts next to them completely forgotten. A bit further, an asari led a quarian man and a human man along, one at each of her arms. Both of them were only lightly clothed and all three were giggling. And at the next corner there was a lunatic street preacher, telling everybody in earshot about how the Protheans would soon return and initiate the rapture. Those people were common here, too. The Prothean ruins on Eletania drew a certain kind of crazy. However, in Port Royal, that only added to the atmosphere.

This all existed only few light years away from constant piracy and other threats. It made Maelys remember just what she was fighting for. Sure, the Hierarchy had the better military, the salarians had the better intelligence and the asari had the better commandos. But the Alliance had something worth fighting for.

The AIS had an official dependency on Eletania. This was where all the paperwork was done, and all the data was gathered and analyzed. However, as it obviously was constantly watched by rival agencies, it was hardly the place for AIS commandos to report to. Instead, Maelys, Sandro and Sehenna entered a small store, located at the first level of a large, mostly residential house that seemed to be covered over in over in pieces of cloth, in an exaggerated excess of quarian style. There were many such obscure stores here, catering to the most niche tastes. This one sold 'objects of culture' from quarian, salarian, asari and turian society. Most of it was unbearable, campy kitsch.

Truth be told the apparent store owner would never have been able to live from his sales. Thus it was a good thing that he was in the AIS' pay. He knew his three visitors already, of course, and as so many times before opened a small door in the back of the store. Behind it was a small, windowless room. All its walls were covered in electronic panels. A desk stood in one corner, and three chairs were in front of it. Maelys did not know the man behind the desk, though. He was high grown, blond, and good-looking, though he had an aura about him of a bit too sharp professionalism and maybe even arrogance. His presence surprised Maelys.

So far, she had always reported to a friendly Indian lady. She did not know her name, of course, such things were too dangerous. But she had liked her. She had always been very formal and very disorganized, but also very friendly and very intelligent. She had fit very well to this place. In a way, she had also fit to how AIS handled its commandos in general. After all, officially they did not even exist. So the service handled them mostly at the side, so to say, without much in the way of formalities or records. The AIS commandos had become even somewhat proud of that fact. They could get the job done without all the stiffness, formality and overbearing discipline of the military intelligences. In the longstanding human tradition of interservice rivalry, AIS agents were proud not to be military.

However, the new guy obviously was a bit different. That was plain in his precise movements and the tidily organized desk, where before a chaos of datapads and papers had reigned. When the three entered, he looked up, smiled and rose from his chair. He kept his winning, charming smile as he shook Maelys' hand. "Very pleased to meet you, Miss Aetham. I have already read much about you, and about your two partners here as well. I'm very sorry for calling you on such a short term, but as you surely know, this is how we all earn our money here."

_Maybe__, __on __second __thought__, __he __isn__'__t __so __bad_, Maelys thought smiling.

…...

The orders they had received were strange, but not extraordinary. A frustrating moment for any special agent was that their jobs often _hinted_ at certaing things, but they could never know for sure. Or at least it was frustrating to any sufficiently curious and interested special agent. Sandro rarely cared, he simply did his job. But Maelys was quite interested in what went on in the Alliance and the wider galaxy. Very often she would have liked to know the background of some of her missions. However, that was a privilege only very rarely bestowed upon common agents and commandos.

Right now the order was to observe and protect a secret meeting that would go on in one of Port Royal's industrial areas. The team was under strict orders not to be seen, but to protect the participants of the meeting from the shadows. As Mr Johnson (a standard 'name' for male contacts among the AIS, most likely not the real name of the blond man at the office) had explained it was likely that nothing at all would happen. But if, if there were any danger to the people meeting there, then the team was to intervene. Despite knowing better than to question the wisdom of her orders, Maelys nonetheless wondered why they would need well trained and experienced commandos for such a relatively simple job. Mr Johnson had been nice, but she had the feeling he was not completely telling the truth. Something _would_ happen. That was the only reason they had to send her and her team out, instead of just some security guards or whatever.

Night had fallen on the planet. The planet's 35h day cycle had come to an end, and it's large and near primary moon had risen above Maelys. She had taken up position on a rooftop of a small industrial facility, while Sandro and Sehenna were hiding in some back alleys below her. Few people crossed this part of the town even at day, as most of it consisted of automatic factories, and at night it was nearly completely dead. Those people one could meet here, though, were more likely to stab you with a knife than to greet you or even only ignore you. It was one of the worst parts of the town, which made Maelys wonder why a seemingly so important meeting would be held here. Surely, there were enough secretive spots in better parts of the town, too.

By and large, Eletania was a rich planet. Since the end of their exodus forty years ago the quarian had built up quite a driving economy here. The planet's cluster formed a salient of the Alliance settled Near Traverse into the multi-species Far Traverse, to which it was connected through several relays. Naturally, this made the place a trading centre. Besides that, quarian engineering, once turned to more than just basic survival, soon made the colony, the new quarian homeworld, a centre for high-end and niche manufacturing. It was exporting tools, vehicles and much more to the entire galaxy. However, that was not the kind of industry prevalent in Port Royal. The factories here mostly turned out mass products for the crews making a stop at the nearby space port. Most of them were fully automatic, all of them were cheap, and it showed.

One guy was already there. A scrawny, young human man of obviously Asian descent, who looked insecurely at his surroundings, and waited nervously for his counterpart to come. Maelys watched his surroundings carefully through the scope of her snipe rifle. It was somewhat funny: She fancied herself one of the best commandos the AIS had. Yet, despite being one of only very few asari in the service, it were not her biotics that stood out. Rather, she was one of the best sharp shooters the Alliance had.

She sneezed. Luckily, she had been able to pull up her jacket, so the sound was muffled. She had her omni-tool inject more anti-allergenes. That was the problem with Eletania. The reason it was so perfect as a new quarian homeworld was the local microbiology, which was in a symbiotic relationship to all native life on the planet, and whose spores filled up the entire atmosphere. In a way, the local ecosystem was hence not dissimilar to Rannoch's. Half a century ago, an Alliance biotech corporation had found a way to make the quarians adapt to it. Within years, they had been able to live without suits here. However, for non-quarians, the omnipresent spores could still be a problem, even after decades of further medical research for them.

When she looked through her rifle's scope again, she realized something was amiss. Whoever had chosen this meeting point had done a very bad job. The spot was far too open, with far too many potential sniping points around it, and the nearest alley or other escape route was too far away. It looked like a botched up job, however - the AIS just would never make such rookie mistakes. And besides, for about half an hour or so it had only been this young man standing there. His contact did not seem to come. Something was fishy here. Very, very fishy. And while Maelys was a young woman by asari standards, she nonetheless already had decades of experience and training. She knew when to trust her instincts.

She called her teammates and told them: "Get ready to intervene. Something's wrong here."

She waited for their affirmations and began to search the nearby roof tops. _There__!_ Something was illuminated there by the light of Eletania's moon. She took a closer look. _A __sniper__. __Another __one__. __Turian__, __by __the __looks __of __it_. Alliance citizenship was so far not open to turians. A social-political controversy about that had been one of last year's hot topics, but nothing had been decided yet. In any case it was still possible the AIS would hire mercenaries, of course, but Maelys doubted that was the case here. Agents were not always told everything, but they were usually informed about parallel operations, exactly so as to avoid accidental fights. She had to presume the sniper was hostile.

She searched the other rooftops and found one more. She could see a feminine upper body that could have been human, asari or quarian. And whoever she was, she was definitely taking aim at the man below them. _Time __to __get __active__. _"Get the guy out of there!" she ordered her teammates. "Seh, pull him to you. Sandro, cover her!"

The two sprung into action, and Maelys fired. She had not been fully focused on her target, as she also had to give out those orders. However, during her career there had been many quite more difficult targets already. Something liquid splashed from the enemy sniper's body and her stature slumped. Then she targeted her colleague. It took her three shots to hit him, but considering how few time she had to aim, that was acceptable. There was a reason why she preferred sniper rifles with lower cooling down times over the ultra-precise ones. Actual combat often did not allow for super-clean preciseness.

Even while hit, the turian had been able to fire a single shot. Maelys cursed. In a hurry, she folded her rifle and shouldered it. Then she used biotic acceleration to get down the roof. Most biotics who knew that talent used it offensively, as a charge against enemies, but she always did so defensively. Mostly to escape, to bring room between her and her enemies, which of course was very practical for a sharp shooter. But it could also be a quick, if tiring, substitute for climbing. She found Sehenna and Sandro in a small alley below her. They had their weapons raised and taken the young man between him. Stubby, black hair, a concentrated look about his face and with a pistol of his own. He even seemed to know how to handle it. Maelys sighed when she saw he was unharmed. _Mission __aim __still __partially __possible__. _

"Let's go," she said. The young man turned around surprised at her voice and aimed his pistol at her, but fortunately he calmed down quick enough. Sehenna and Sandro had spotted her before already. "We don't have the time for..."

"Enemies!" Sandro shouted.

Several armed and armoured people came running towards them. Turians, salarians, humans. In an instant, Maelys knelt down and drew her submachine gun. Above her, Sandro fired his assault rifle. Maelys had seen that before; he was a beast with it. Together they concentrated fire on two of the attackers, which fell down. The rest took cover.

"Keep firing and fall back," Maelys ordered.

_Shit__. _She did not know if they could get out of this situation. The team walked and bullets flew past them. Some hit, but so far the shields held. She heard Sehenna growl at her side. The sound sent shivers down her spine, because she knew what would come. The drell unleashed her biotics. A wave of dark energy hit one of the enemies, raised her in the air and then threw her full force against a nearby wall.

"Nice," muttered Sandro.

The enemy pushed on. Maelys' submachine gun overheated. Cursing, she let it drop and drew her sidearm, a regular pistol. She hated those little things; she never seemed able to get a grip on it. Fortunately, the enemy's zeal cost them dearly. They pushed on and on, right into the team's fire. Only some of them had the good sense to stay in cover. _Paid thugs, _Maelys realized, _nothing more._ They were still enough to force a drawn out firefight on the team, though.

Suddenly, Maelys saw Sehenna jump into action. She turned around, her body glowing in an aura of biotic energy, and jumped. Following her movement, the asari saw dark clad humans jumping down from above them. _Shit__! _Sehenna propelled herself upwards by dark energy and reached one of the humans before he could hit ground. She rammed her knee into his stomach and began to hit him repeatedly into the head. One biotically enhanced strike after the next hit the human. When they both hit the ground again, he already was unconscious.

Maelys went down on her knees again and changed her weapon. Her big strength with the sniper rifle was not so much precision - she had that, too, but where she shone was speed. High above them, men were roping down from the roofs. Maelys shot, aimed, shot and aimed again. Every enemy who managed to get to the ground fell to Sehenna's tender mercy. Meanwhile, Sandro kept any remaining enemies on the ground pinned down with this rifle. Even the man they had apparently saved did not panic. He mostly cowered behind Sandro, but that was not a bad idea actually, and he did make use of his pistol now and then.

And suddenly it was over. All around them lay corpses in dark black. What remained of the 'first wave' so to say fled. And Maelys could finally catch breath again.

"I... what... what happened here? Who _are_ you?" the young man demanded to know.

Sandro scoffed and Sehenna gave him an icy glare. "Does it matter who we are?" she asked sternly. "We saved you."

"You didn't do badly, though," Maelys hastened to intervene. There was no need to get tensions rising. "Who are _you__?_"

"Park. My name's James Park," the man answered. "I was told to wait here... until things suddenly went crazy." He paused. "Shit! All those dead men... oh god, what will _happen _now?" And before anybody could answer: "You know, the way those two" he pointed at Sandro and Sehenna "first appeared I could have thought _you_ meant me harm." A pause. "Until that sniper nearly hit me," he added awkwardly. "The biotic pull got me out of it."

_He __talks __too __much__. __He__'__s __panicked__. __Not __as __much __as __most __civilians __would__, __though__. __And __he __has __a __quick __mind__. _"We're ordered to protect you" Maelys answered, "Truth be told, we don't know what happened, either, but we will make sure that..."

"Fuck!" Sandro interrupted her. "I know that man!" He tapped one of the corpses with a foot. "Giorgio something-or-other. That... damn." He fell silent. _Not __like __him __to __be__ so __agitated__._

"So? Who was he?" Sehenna prompted.

"He is... he was with the Special Operations Division," Sandro just said.

_The __SOD__. __The __military__'__s __commandos__. __What __the __hell __has __just _happened _here__?_

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**Galactic Codex  
**

The Galactic Codex is the Alliance's reference encyclopedia, to be used for quickly finding relevant facts to all kinds of topics.

_Searching __relevant entries__... __four __entries __found__. _

**Deep ****Traverse ****Settlement ****Zone****: **Galactic Region defined in the Eden Prime Concordat of 2166 as a condominium of all Citadel member races, under the protection of the Citadel fleet. The Concordat opened up the far away parts of the Attican Traverse for joint settlement under common protection and with free trade among the colonies, as it was determined that this lawless region of space could not be pacified by one power alone. While many in the Alliance have criticized the agreement, arguing they should have claimed the entire Attican Traverse, it was in fact the Alliance government who pushed for the Concordat, as it allowed them to settle at least some Deep Traverse worlds under Citadel fleet protection. Furthermore, all trade between the Settlement Zone and core Citadel space have to pass through Alliance space, bringing in revenue.

Currently, no colony in the Settlement Zone is larger than 100,000 people, and the entire area is still in its early development. Piracy and slavery raids, organized and started from the nearby Terminus Systems, remain a constant problem. However, the Citadel fleets have so far proven to be able to ward off the worst dangers from the inhabitants of the zone, and instances of inter-species conflict so far have remained very rare and low-key, too.

**Eletania****: **Garden World (dextro-amino) in the Attican Beta cluster belonging to the Systems Alliance. Primarily known as the new quarian homeworld, it is settled by 55 million people, of which 51m are quarians (out of a total quarian population of 54 millions). Its most striking features before quarian settlement were its Prothean ruins and its microbiology. The ruins are still poorly understood, but seem to contain records of Prothean interaction with paleolithic humanity. The native microbiology, on the other hand, made settlement nearly impossible: Symbiotic with nearly every native lifeform it fills the entire atmosphere with spores, which have, without medical treatment, detrimental health effects on every known sapient race.

However, human biotech company BioSol recognized the similarity of the symbiotic microbiology with the likewise symbiotic microbiology of Rannoch. In 2105 they announced the possibility of adapting quarians to the alien symbiosis through medical treatments. In 2112, the then Earth Alliance and the Quarian Migrant Fleet agreed on ownership rights for the planet. Experimental Settlement began in 2120, delayed by the Age of Wars. The quarians and the System Alliance defended quarian settlement on the planet against a Council decree in the so-called Defiance of Eletania in 2137. In 2141 then, the quarian exile officially ended.

While at first granted the status of an autonomous protectorate with full internal self-governance, Eletania joined the Systems Alliance as a full member colony in 2168 after the Second Quarian Uprising. Since then, the System Alliance assumed citizenship by default for all quarians, just as it does for humans. Nowadays, the world is a prosperous one. It benefits from the Attican Beta Cluster's position as nexus in the relay network and from quarian high-end engineering, exporting high-quality or very niche manufactured goods to all over the galaxy.

**Defiance ****of ****Eletania****: **Military confrontation between a Turian Hierarchy fleet under Council orders on the one, and the Migrant Fleet and considerable elements of the Systems Alliance Navy on the other side over quarian settlement of Eletania in 2137. Since 2120 there had been an experimental colony on the planet under medical supervision by Earth biotech company BioSol, but the colony's rapid growth overextended BioSol's resources. Thus a plague broke out 2135-2137, killing ten thousands of quarians. The Council sought to use this as a pretext to deny the quarians their new homeworld. Officially it was to prevent new plagues, but unofficially it was to continue their policy of keeping the quarians homeless, similar to they had driven the quarians away from Ekuna.

At that time, human-turian relationships were heavily strained, and the Alliance was generally fed up with Council politics, so they decided to have this be the litmus test. They drew together military forces to Eletania's system and announced they would leave the Citadel if the Council had its decision carried out. The Migrant Fleet, too, appeared in full force in the system. For days the two sides continued their stand-off, until the asari, who at this time had already been annoyed with previous turian aggressive behaviour towards humanity, could broker a compromise. The Council decision was rescinded, however humanity's Citadel embassy was to be suspended for thirty Citadel standard years.

Despite this condition, the outcome was seen by most as a diplomatic victory for the Alliance, and the suspension from the Citadel is even commonly taken as the start of humanity's Silver Age.

**Silver ****Age****: **Historiographical term and political slogan referring to a time span in human history beginning with the Defiance of Eletania in 2137. The usually positively connoted term is a reminiscence of the so-called Golden Age of humanity, 2165-2106, when after the First Human-Batarian War humanity began to spread in the galaxy, expanding and establishing itself on the galactic scene. The Silver Age is commonly seen as a lesser version of that, an age where the Alliance 'finally found its pride again' as many call it.

With the damages of the Age of Wars (the rapid succession of Second Human-Batarian War, Human-Turian War and Third Human-Batarian War) mostly repaired, the Alliance could afford more defiance against the alien powers again and could turn towards internal reform. It is seen as a time of hope and new beginnings, as the power of corporations (who had been given special privileges after the Age of Wars) was curtailed again, new alliances with non-Citadel powers were formed, and the Alliance economy grew and soared.

Whether the Silver Age has come to an end or is ongoing is a question raised more in political propaganda than historiographical discourse. Leftwing groups claim that the Silver Age has ended with the end of further economical reforms, that it has become a victim of its own success. Rightwing groups mostly maintain that the Silver Age is ongoing and that the Alliance is looking to a bright future.


End file.
